I just tried my newly overhauled 1976 Pro Reverb. Sounds lovely - great bluesy sound. But when I tried it with my Airbrake attenuator, and cranked the master to 10, even with only mild attenuation, it sounds awful. Really fuzzy and muddy.
So my question is, bearing in mind how similar old Marshalls are to old Fenders, and bearing in mind how brilliant they sound when cranked, why do Fenders sound so shit?
The only obvious physical difference is the very small output transformer. This is 45watt amp. A Marshall JTM 45 has a much bigger OT. Is this this anything to do with it?
Comments
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
ICBM is also right re the inherent UL thing- they are meant to sound the same, however weren't UL PR's 70w not 40w? Can't recall.
All you need to do is add a TS9. Then crank it.
Maybe layer a few bits of input signal out by using a good comp and just using an eq to take a few dB out.
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
As has been said it's the atenuation that is making things sound a little ropey.
At full volume you get a nice fuzz tone too (listen to Cortez the Killer).
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I know what you mean though. I love my Deluxe, but it might be an acquired taste.
a jcm800 has a very tight, bright preamp so with the amp cranked the power section doesn't really have anything to flub out on, it's the low frequencies overloading the power section that quite often make loud amps fart out and sound bad.
Bandcamp
Spotify, Apple et al
I Jamed with a band not too long ago and for some unknown reason they wanted me to be louder. I say an unknown reason because my J20 is friggin loud cranked and have never needed to do that before but they insisted thinking the band's guitarist's 30 watt amp was louder than mine (fool). Although my amp was compressing it was still articulate so I would say I love fender based amps cranked. I won't be doing that too many times though as I value my ears